Baby Steps
by Emserai
Summary: A BlainexTina friendship fic in response to the spoilers and the promo for 4X21. Maybe baby steps are ok for now...


A BlainexTina friendship fic based on spoilers for 4x21 – well spoilers-ish it's in the promo now after all.

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**Baby Steps**

Tina sighed at Blaine, she had gone round to watch a movie but he was faffing and pacing about the room like he was incredibly nervous about something, "Oh my word, Blaine, what is it? I'm gonna get whiplash watching you pace around this room."

"It's nothing," Blaine lied.

"Ok," she said, not at all convinced, "Can we just watch a movie already then?" she was getting impatient, she had been looking forward to a relaxing afternoon with a friend away from the pressures of senior year, and so far this afternoon really hadn't fulfilled that requirement.

"Sure, I'll umm be back in a minute," he muttered, "You can choose."

_Weird, _Tina thought as she went over to look at Blaine's dvds, she knew what they all were really though, they had spent a lot of time together this year – time that had led to her rather embarrassing crush on him, which she was almost over by now. She knew in her head it was never going to happen and most of the time these days her heart got the idea.

Before she had got very far in her consideration of whether she could legitimately suggest watching Love Actually in April her eyes landed on a foreign object: a small black, velvet box that most certainly did not belong on a dvd shelf. Tina had a horrible feeling she knew what was inside it and she couldn't help but open it, _oh Blaine what have you done _she thought. She put it straight back on the shelf, she shouldn't have seen that, but now she had she had to say something, surely? But then again if Blaine wanted her to know he would have told her. At least now she knew why he had been acting so nervous all afternoon.

Before she could make up her mind what to do Blaine reappeared behind her, "Hey you chosen yet?" he started to ask but then his hazel eyes also travelled to the box, he had meant to hide it, but he must have forgotten. "Oh," he said.

Suddenly Tina couldn't stop herself, "Yes Blaine, oh, is that what I think it is?"

"It's umm, it's for Kurt," he muttered.

"Well I didn't think it would be for me," she joked, "But Blaine, you and Kurt, you're not even dating?"

"Well no, but at the wedding and we've been getting a lot closer…" he said.

"Who are you trying to convince?" Tina asked, "Me or you?" Blaine shrugged, but he said nothing and she was on a roll now so she continued, "Isn't he dating that guy from NYADA, what's his name, Adam, with the cute accent?"

"Well, he was, but they broke up a week ago," Blaine said.

Tina nodded and took a deep breath, for the first time really thinking about what she wanted to say here, she didn't like this, it wasn't that she didn't like the idea of Kurt and Blaine getting married, of course she did it was that she couldn't see this ending with anything other than Blaine getting hurt. "Oh, good," she said, "And has Kurt said he wants to get back together?"

"Not really," Blaine admitted, "But he told me he broke up with Adam."

"Listen Blaine, it's not that I don't love you and Kurt together, and I know you still love him and I'd have to be blind not to see that he's still in love with you, and it's not that I don't think you're going to get married someday because I do," she paused and then added half-jokingly, "and when you do I expect to be wearing a fabulous dress courtesy of Kurt's fairy godmother at ."

Blaine nodded, "Go on," he said quietly.

"It's just that right now you're not even dating and maybe," she paused, and then looking into his eyes she said gently, "it's quite a big step to go from not dating to engaged." She took a second to think about the next thing, but she had got this far, she might as well keep going, "in fact it's a massive step and I know that you love Kurt and he loves you."

"You said that already," Blaine pointed out.

"Yes, sorry," Tina said, "it's that I think maybe you two have some more talking to do before you get to the whole ring thing, you need to learn to trust each other again." She looked her friend in the eyes, trying to judge how much damage she was doing to their friendship here.

"You mean he needs to learn to trust me again because I messed everything up," Blaine said, his voice still full of self-deprecation.

"No, I mean both of you, you have to learn to trust that it will be different this time too, you have to learn to trust that Kurt will always be around for you and that he will know when you need him this time, and that takes time Blaine," she put her hand on his shoulder, "I know you like grand gestures and I know that Kurt loves that about you, but now might not be the best moment for them, talk to him, ask him if he's ready to try again, tell him that you love him," she paused, "but Blaine, you're 19, maybe baby steps is ok for now."

"It's just that I've been saying all those things and I don't feel like he's hearing me, I don't feel like he knows how much I want to make this right," the older guy said putting his head in his hands.

"I think he does know, and I think him breaking up with Adam is a good sign, but I just think that you both need time to rebuild and…" she stopped, unsure how to finish without repeating herself again.

"Baby steps?" Blaine asked.

"Yeah," Tina said, sliding her hand from her friend's shoulder so that she had an arm around him.

"It's just, I miss him, I need him," he confessed.

"I know," she nodded, "I know," she squeezed his shoulders.

There was silence for a moment and then Blaine said, "You're gonna look beautiful at our wedding," and the tension was broken.

Tina smiled and took her arm away from round her friend's shoulders, "It's gonna be ok, in the end," she tried to reassure him, "What do you want to do?"

"I dunno, do we have time for Harry Potter before you have to go?"

"Sure," Tina said and got up and threw the box across to him.

"Hey, treat my possessions with more respect!" They both laughed and Tina felt incredibly lucky that she had been able to say that without losing one of her closest friends.

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So, this is very much a reaction fic, I debated for quite a while about who to use in Tina's role in this fic, so I'd be interested to know what people think of my choice. As always all reviews, especially constructive criticism are appreciated :).


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